Court Updates

04 / 10 / 2020

By Edyta Kania

♦ Circuit Court / Cook County: All matters are rescheduled and continued for 30 days from the originally scheduled court date (except for emergencies). Electronic filings of motion and new cases continue.

♦ No later than April 16, 2020, all hearings shall be conducted by videoconferencing, so that the only persons physically in the courtroom are those persons essential to activities that require that person to be in the courtroom; at the discretion of the judge presiding, if it is not reasonably possible to conduct a hearing or by videoconference, it may be conducted by teleconference.

♦ The Sheriff of Cook County shall cease enforcement of eviction orders relating to residential real estate and shall resume enforcement of said orders on May 18, 2020; the time period in which such orders expiring before May 18, 2020, must be enforced pursuant to 73 5 ILCS 5/9-117 is extended 60 days from the current expiration date, but not later than June 15, 2020.

♦Chancery Division. All mortgage foreclosures, evictions, orders for possession, and judicial sales are stayed until May 18, 2020. There shall be a moratorium on final judgments and executions of judgments in mortgage foreclosure proceedings.

♦ All mortgage foreclosures, evictions, orders for possession, and judicial sales are stayed for 30 days from 03/16/2020. Some judges are available to handle emergency matters in person, via phone or video conferencing. The Sheriff will cease execution of eviction orders on residential real estate and resume them in 30 days.

♦ Law Division (Assignment, Commercial Calendar, Tax Section and Individual General Calendar). All deadlines will be extended to the future 30-day date. Cases set for trial that have been reset by this order remain set for trial on the day to which they have been rescheduled. All motions not set by order are stricken and need to be re-scheduled and re-noticed.

♦ Law Division (Motion Section). All cases and deadlines will be automatically extended by approximately 8-weeks.

♦Probate Division. All matters are continued and reset to a date after May 18, 2020. Emergency matters include, but are not limited to, a petition to appoint or extend a temporary guardian, a petition to open a decedent’s estate to approve the sale of real estate, and a petition to authorize a distribution of settlement proceeds where a recipient has a financial hardship. General Administrative Order 2020-01 dated April 9, 2020 provides instructions for emergency motion procedures (e-filing and courtesy copies, in-person appearances, video-conferencing).

♦ U.S. District Court (NDIL): Between 03/17/2020 and 04/03/2020, all deadlines in civil cases are extended by 21 days. The Court remains accessible via electronic filing, and, in some emergency situations via phone and video conferencing.

♦ U.S. Bankruptcy Court (NDIL): Effective 03/23/2020: (1) All hearings will be conducted by telephone and there will be no personal appearances in court; (2) Court call days and times have changed; (3) All motions must be served a minimum of 7 days before presentment; a (4) A party who does not want a motion called will have to file a Notice of Objection 2 business days before the presentment date. Otherwise, the motion may be granted in advance.

♦ Circuit Court of Lake County: Effective 03/17/2020 through 04/03/2020, all deadlines in civil cases are extended by 21 days. The Lake County Sheriff’s Judicial Sales Department will be closed for 30 days and all business will be suspended during that time. All sales will be continued up to 59 days from the scheduled sale date.

♦ Circuit Court of DuPage County: Effective 03/17/2020 through April 17, 2020, all civil and criminal cases are rescheduled. Cases will be continued for a period between 30-60 days from the originally scheduled court date. The Circuit Court Clerk will notify all interested parties via mail of a future court date.

♦ Circuit Court of Kane County: All matters set for trial are continued for a period of 60 days (from March 20, 2020). All trials set on Tuesday, May 19, 2020 and every date thereafter remain set for trial.